Hi, Jill,There are a fair number of young folks with SD these days and many show up at the national conferences - last year in White Plains, NY we had quite a few... maybe 30 people under 40? but it all depends on how you define young!
I was 23 when I developed SD and am now 31. Botox also works extremely well for me. It gives me a normal voice and no one would know I have SD when the injections are working. Nothing about it freaks me out considering it has given me my normal life back!
I also changed careers to something with fewer vocal demands as I didn't have a good handle on treatment for the first year or so. Now I'm happy with my current job where I basically work on a computer all day. I spend some time on the phone too but that works out fine because of Botox.
So there are plenty of us younger folks with SD. We've started some programming w/ the younger generation and much of it centers around career advice/changes/strategies. I'd be happy to send you some of our published info. If you received NSDA's most recent newsletter, it has an article about a book coming out in the next couple of weeks (which will be debuted at the upcoming symposium) written by a younger woman who also developed SD at a young age.
If there is any chance you are coming to the conference in SLC on the weekend, we will have a break-out session for younger folks. If you are coming, let me know and we can make it a point to meet.
Ok, take care,
Laurie
